CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++classinheritancepointers
Skywarp
Skywarp

Reputation: 1059

Allocating memory to pointer of a derived class

I have base class "Actor" and derived class "Outlaw"

"Outlaw" used to be its own base class and I could easily create a pointer using code:

Outlaw * outlaw = new Outlaw();

Now "Outlaw" inherits base type "Actor"

How would I write the new code to make a pointer to Outlaw class? I'm pretty new to C++ but have a good amount of C experience.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 244

Answers (1)

Cheers and hth. - Alf
Cheers and hth. - Alf

Reputation: 145204

It's exactly the same.

But first of all, maybe you don't need a dynamically allocated instance, maybe you just need a variable. In that case just a declare a variable, because due to speed of everything else in C++, dynamic allocation is costly (everything is relative, dynamic allocation is costly relative to an ordinary variable declaration). E.g.,

Outlaw outlaw;  // That's it!

If you do need dynamic allocation, best don't store the pointer raw.

Put it in a smart pointer immediately, e.g. a std::shared_ptr or a std::unique_ptr:

std::unique_ptr<Outlaw> outlaw( new Outlaw() );

To use the mentioned smart pointer classes, simply include <memory>.

Upvotes: 2

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